Iron Man 3 will be partially filmed in China and co-produced by a Chinese film company. Filming for the third movie will start in May in the billion-dollar franchise from Marvel Studios — a Disney subsidiary. The cast includes Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle.

China has become the holy grail for Hollywood film studios eager to cash in on a potentially hugely lucrative market that boasts the fastest growing movie box office in the world.

Last year, cinemas in China raked in more than 13 billion yuan ($2 billion), a nearly 30 percent increase from 2010, the state Xinhua news agency has reported.